Month: November 2018

I’ve never understood yard sales. What makes a person want to sort through someone else’s junk that they want get rid of so they can pay money to bring it home? I’ve never stopped at one, but it looks as if having yard sales and attending yard sales is a ‘thing’ in this area. It makes walking the dog in the morning a bit of a crap shoot as cars suddenly swerve to pull over when they see a yard sale and they aren’t looking for pedestrians. I’ve also had to wait while the shoppers shop, because they haven’t pulled over far enough and they are blocking the street.

Now I’m holding yard sales with no experience and no idea what I’m doing. And I was quite pleased with my first one. I had hordes of people all day long, but I found out later that there was a big estate sale in the area so I must have benefited from that. Today I was going complain that I gave a yard sale and nobody came, but as I’ve been writing people have been showing up, and it’s been fun talking with them. And when one woman paid me with a two dollar bill, another shopper who watched that transaction bought the $2 from me for $2.25! It’s turning out to be a profitable day!

This isn’t my photo. I guess I’ll be able to see who actually reads the blog when people start asking where I am. This is a stock photo I’ve been scrolling for this morning. It seemed like a good idea because I’m freezing! Literally freezing. Bundled up in sweater, socks, fleece lined slippers, and I can’t think about anything except how cold I am. And yes, I do see the irony of going on and on about wanting to go north to see family and friends, and the first cold snap in Florida has me hunkered down and hiding out, waiting for the sun. It will warm up here in a day or two, but not so where I’m heading. I visited last year in April and half froze to death. And the year before that I visited my son’s house as May turned into June and sat in the house wrapped in blankets waiting to leave. And yet even knowing that I have been looking forward to taking snowy landscape pictures without ever once picturing how cold I’ll be while I attempt to take them. And those last trips north seem to mean that I’ll be too cold until June, or there-abouts. I’m pretty sure that this year will be the exception for me. This snowbird will get her seasons straightened out and make sure I’m in Florida for the winter months. After all, here we will be seeing the annual migration of birds to the area, and for months we’ll be able to go out to the state parks and wildlife preserves to see nature in all her glory. That’ll be next year.

I was scrolling for a winter snowsuit picture to wind up with and one of them reminded me of how the kids used to do a running, head-first, somersault onto their jackets, and come up on their feet with they jackets on. Don’t know that I’ll master that technique but I wonder if this comes in my size?

The day will come, eventually. The day when there is nothing to do but go out and take pictures, and play on the computer. And when that glorious day comes there will be hugs to give, and better yet to receive. I’m not quite there yet, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel now. So it’s back to work, but not work-work, just the work of making a life change happen. It hasn’t been easy, but I know it will be worth it…

I heard the ping as a text came in, and discovered that there was a soft-shell turtle in my neighbor’s pool. So of course I grabbled my camera and headed out the back door. When my neighbor heard my screen door slam she called for me to help her. But it was more fun to take pictures.

He was a speedy little thing. Catching him looked easy, so Sue’s husband took over and he also found out that it wasn’t as easy as it looked. But he was caught eventually. I just hope Sue doesn’t have to try to catch anything smaller than him with that net.These are snapping turtles, see how he has the net? I’m sure he’d love to chomp on Sue’s finger too.

She told me to get ready, that he’d make a bee line for the lake, but that didn’t happen. It took persuasion to send him on his way. And one last photo of Wilbur, in case you were wondering how he’s been doing. Of course things are usually a lot less exciting, but I have loved living next door, having a front row seat so to speak. Lots of fun without the responsibility. Sue doesn’t acquire her menagerie, often they are deposited at the doorstep by her daughter, but sometimes they just wander in on their own. She says I’ll miss all the lakeside drama, and she is right…

It’s complicated, this move. That the house sold at all came as a surprise to me, but in a day? And the opportunity to buy in an over-55 mobile community was even better news. After my very needed, and wonderfully long, visit ‘up north’ over the summer I was in a quandary, needing more time up north, but also needing to be in FL and keep my healthcare plan. This move will allow me to be a snow bird, able to retire, again, and enjoy the best of both worlds. But the actual physical ‘move’ has been exhausting, because I’ve had access to the new place so I have moved a few boxes a day and it has felt endless. I must have made progress because I have arrived at the particularly frustrating time when I walk into the bedroom, pick up the TV remote, turn and click only to realize that the TV and the bureau it sat on are both at the new place. And I decided to bring steamed, spiced, shrimp to my cousin’s house for Thanksgiving, got everything ready, and I opened the cupboard where I keep the spices and it was empty. My underwear is at one house and my socks at the other. I fixed that today though. Now almost all my clothes are at the new place, I’m sure that won’t cause a problem at all.

When the papers are signed Ozzie and I will be hitting the road. Being a snowbird doesn’t usually mean you are up north in the winter, but I need to be there. So does Ozzie, because he’s not supposed to be in the park. There is a no pets policy that’s been in place for years. But in today’s world if you have a service dog they must be allowed free access. If I was the sort of person who enjoyed a fight I’d bring him in and not care what repercussions come from that. But I hate conflict, so I will head north now and see what happens. Ozzie is the last of his litter still with us and I know that he probably doesn’t have a lot of time ahead of him. But they will be good days, I’ll make sure of that. He and I are in this together after all, he’s my boy, so I have to hedge my bets…

If only I was as good at talking other people into or out of things, it might come in handy. I am, however, really good at talking myself into and out of things. Like last night, I was tired, too tired I said to myself, to go out for the sunset. Which explains how it is that I only saw the sunset from my neighborhood, since Ozzie talked me into taking him for a walk. I knew it would be a spectacular sky last night, and it was. And I did also notice my neighbor’s update of their ‘campfire’ on the lawn. Their first attempt with a black pot over the ‘fire’ hadn’t held up, but I saw this one as a coffee pot so maybe that’s why I liked it so much.

So this morning I kept telling myself to get on the ball, get yourself moved for God’s sake, don’t go out for the sunrise, even though it was probably going to be pretty. Then I thought about the fact that in a sense it would be the first sunrise of the rest of my life, and that thought got me out the door. Not especially pretty, but I’ll have a lot more sunrises to see since I have no place else to be, and that’s good thing.

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Hello

When you notice a class on blogging, and it’s offered on your day off, you just might wind up with a blog of your own. There are so many photo-worthy things to see here on the Nature Coast of Florida, and it’s a shame to keep them to myself. Sharing is a good thing, right?

All of the above is still true but time has brought some very welcome changes to my life, and I’m no longer on the nature coast of FL. At least not right at this minute. I’m now a snowbird, who has flown to the snow instead of away from it. So there is no telling where I’ll be posting from on any given day, but I will get my snowbird seasons straightened out. Eventually.